Crossroads
by Utopiadoesntexist
Summary: When Opal Ferry starts at a new school in a new town, she attempts to recreate her identity from nerd to popular. While trying to do this, she comes across a few people who seem a little off, so she tries to unravel the mystery by following them outside of school, until she understands what has happened and tries to back out, but it is already too late
1. Day One: Yellow Brooke

I was normal. I had a normal life, with normal friends, a normal family, a normal school, and a normal job. I was up for 1st ranked in the 10th grade, and was about to score a date with a hot guy from school. I was about to get a promotion at the advertising agency I worked for. Everything in my life was as perfect as it could be in a sixteen year old girls life.

Now the funny thing is that nothing happened directly to me, just to the people I loved and cared about, which then affected me. It's called the ripple effect, and the small ripples in my life turned into a tsunami the day I moved to Maple Grove.

Day One:

I woke up a six AM, ready to remake myself into an entirely new and improved self. I jumped into the strange new shower of my strange new house in Maple Grove, the strange new town I had moved to over the summer, after my parents got a divorce. My dad got full custody of me, since my mother was thrown in jail for child abuse the previous year and left me on my own for six months before social services found out I was living alone. So I was okay to live with my dad, who own half of Greendale software, the largest software company in the world. Even though things had settled down for me over the three months I had lived in Maple Grove, I was still petrified about going to Yellow Brook High School, because I knew no one. My job at the small publishing firm downtown was filled with 20-30 year olds hoping to make enough money to move out of their parents basement, and know high school kids came around to the firm. On one hand, I could recreate who I was, but on the other hand, I literally had zero friends.

I stepped out of the shower and stared at my naked body in the steamy mirror. Scars lined my body, along with burns, permanent bruises, and more scars. All reminders of my lovely mother, my previous life. I shrugged into a tight dress I had bought the week before from a designer company, using all of the money I had made from my job. I then spent an hour perfecting the flaws on my face, and adding multiple layers of eyeshadow, mascara, and lipstick, all of which was new and unfamiliar to me. In simple terms, I was a nerdy goody-two-shoes who never stepped out of line in her life. But this was before Maple Grove. Now that I was here, I could be whoever I wanted. So obviously, I chose the mysterious attractive new girl look. After I put the finishing touches on my face, I slipped on some heels and wobbled down the staircase to the front door. Dad was there, and he almost dropped his coffee cup when he saw what I was wearing, but didn't say anything as I walked out the door to the convertible he bought for me. Dad has left me up to my own devices throughout the summer, probably because he feels bad that he didn't notice what Mom was doing to me right under his nose. I don't really care, it just gives me more freedom in what I can do to create my new image. I got into the car and drove away, right into my new life.

As I was driving, I turned up the latest pop song as loud as it would go, and smiled as the wind blew through my hair. Dads mansion was only a few miles away from the school, so I arrived there in only a matter of minutes. I parked my car as close as I could get to the school, and walked into Yellow Brook, a bounce in my step, part from excitement, part from terror.

The cool air hit my thighs as the door swung open. Nobody was there, and the silence was deafening. I checked my phone to find the time. 7:00. Damn. School didnt start until 8:30. I walked through the empty halls, trying to find the admissions office to get my schedule. After about five minutes I found the door unlocked, so I stepped inside. An elderly lady was sitting at the desk, staring at a computer screen.

"Hi. My name is Opal Sanchez. I'm new, so I was wondering if you had my-"

"Your schedule yes, of course," the old lady replied handing me a sheet of paper. "Everything you need should be on that." As I nodded my head in thanks and turned to walk away, the lady said,"By the way, dear, we do have a dress code, so look it over before you come to school like that again." My cheeks flushed and I looked down at myself. My chest and butt look huge, while my waist remained minuscule. Although I was attractive, I looked like a prostitute rather than a student. I sighed and decided I would just have to live with my choice for the day. I checked my phone again. 7:07. Might as well find all of my classes before. the school day begins. As I was walking, my feet began to blister from the high heels, so I took them off and carried them in my hand since no one was around. I kept walking around the school, finding my math, history, and English classes, all honors. As I was approaching the AP chemistry classroom I heard a noise coming from the intersecting hallway. I rounded to corner to find five teenagers running towards me from the end of the hallway. Three boys and two girls. "Hi, I'm Opal. I'm a new junior." I walked towards them, tugging down the hem of my dress to make me look like less of a slut. The kids did not stop running, in fact they were running faster."Why are you running? School doesn't start for more than an hour." I started to move to the side of the hallway to lean against the lockers in order to not get trampled by the sprinting teenagers. As they got to where I was standing, they all stopped and looked at each other.

"I thought no one was here." The brunette girl said to the boys.

"No one was here." The brown eyed boy responded.

"Well, what do we do with her?" The red head girl asked.

"Sorry if I interrupted something," I began, "I'll leave if you want-" One of the boys grabbed my arm. I winced; he was touching the most painful blow I had ever received from Mom, when she put my arm on the stove with a safe on top of it so I couldn't move. Only he noticed out of the group, but said nothing.

"I'm Stiles, this is Scott, Isaac, Allison, and Lydia," he said, vaguely gesturing to the group. One thing: I have photographic memory. I remember everything, from the day I opened my eyes to this day with these people in front of me, so I only needed them to tell me their names once. Stiles spoke again. "Nice to meet you Opal, now run as fast as you can."


	2. Day One: The Run

I was glad I took the heels off before Stiles started to drag me down the hallway, or I would have fallen immediately as we began to run. I'm athletic, just not very graceful. I played soccer, softball, lacrosse, and tennis in years prior, but quit them all to focus on dancing. Some people say it's not a sport; I tell them to take one class and then tell me. Even though I dance a lot, outside of the studio, I am as clumsy as the next person, if not more so. So, once we got to the stairs leading to the front doors of the school, I tripped and tumbled down the entire flight, my brown hair spinning behind me. When I reached the bottom, I laid still on the floor, unsure if I broke anything. I had dealt with much worse pain before, so even if I had broken something, I would not have noticed for awhile. I shakily got up from the ground to survey the damage that had been caused by my fall. To say the least, I felt a lot better than I looked. The stairs were made of a hard, scratchy material that tore up my arms and legs, blood flowing freely down to the floor, circling my dress like a thin belt. I looked up the stairs, expecting to find Stiles and the rest of the kids, but saw no one. I turned around to face the front doors and saw them, facing sideways towards another corridor of the school. I started to walk towards them, and stifled a cry. My right foot was slightly twisted to the side, and definitely not where it was supposed to be. None of the group heard me, so I turned back around to head up the stairs, because I had forgotten my bag near the lockers. I slowly limped up, stair by stair, and I heard something coming from the area I had first met Stiles. I continued up the stairs, until someone stepped in front of me.

"What are you doing? I need to get my bag," I attempted to push past Scott, who was blocking my path. Unfortunately, my foot decided it could take no more pressure, and it gave out, causing me to collapse. Fortunately, Scott caught me with lightning fast reflexes. He moved so quickly it made me jump, startled by his arms around my waist. Being the need I had been, I had never been this close to a guy, or at least a guy who wasn't beat up everyday because he was smart and scrawny. He looked at me, assessing my injuries, taking just a bit longer to skim his eyes over my dress.

"Don't go up there." He said, a dark undertone settled in his voice. He started to place me back on my feet, and as he let go, I subconsciously grabbed tighter to his arms, unsure if my foot could support the weight.

"But my bag, I need it, it has all of my books, and my phone-"

"I think that may be the least of your worries right now," Scott threw one of my arms around his shoulder and used it to support my weight. He turned around to head back down the stairs. I sighed, and let him half carry me until I was back with the rest of the group, who were staring behind me like someone was behind us. I turned around, and saw a dark shadow looming around the corner of the hallway. Scott stopped walking and stood with his back to me, facing back towards the stairs. I heard noises, almost animal-like coming from the shadow, so I stepped out from behind Scott. It was almost like I was in a trance; I walked towards the stairs, barely aware of the pain in my foot. The others tried to stop me, but an unreal strength came over me and with a shove of my hand, they all went flying out the doors of the school. I heard others, not Stiles, Lydia, Isaac, Allison, or Scott, talking outside the doors, I could hear the footsteps approaching the doors, but I was focused on the dark shadow at the top of the stairs. Again, I walked up the stairs, one by one, as the shadow drew closer as well, slinking low on the floor. Two specks of red glinted from the blackness as I neared the top of the stairs, unaware of where my body was leading me. The shadow was still emerged in darkness, so I continued to approach it, hyper aware of the growling coming from below the red lights. I looked around, trying to understand what the shadow was, when I spotted my backpack. I blinked, and all of the pain came rushing back. I fell to the ground, right in front of the dark shadow. The red lights shifted down, almost as if they noticed my movement. Then, the shadow lurched forward, and the last thing I remember is the hot air on my face.


End file.
